legnA
by Insomniac Owl
Summary: That stupid boy with his stupid eyebrow piercing and his stupid cellphone and those wings painted right behind him that made him look like an angel, almost... He wouldn't know what a bright future he was going to have had... [Naruto centric]


**legnA**

_by Insomniac Owl_

-

Boy 13. He's always thought he's been unlucky because of that number. Kid number thirteen - that's what his foster mother calls him when she can't remember his name (which is most of the time). He's seventeen though, one more month and then he'll be out and free.

Out to what though?

Looking around, he doesn't see much worth coming to. He's standing against his 'house' (if one can call it that - he's outside more than he's in for a reason) and all he can see is the other kids like him. The orphans, the druggies (though he's not one of them), the kids who'll grow up to be bums and slackers and fry cooks - if they're lucky, and don't land in jail or death's arms first. Yeah… this is a great world to come of age in.

He shakes himself, shoves his hands deeper into his pockets. He can't think that way. That won't get him anywhere. He has to stay optimistic, because he knows that once he starts thinking that there's nothing out there for him, there won't be. He's told himself a thousand times that he has to scrabble for what he wants, because no one is going to give it to him. An orphan? A kid from the slums? We don't want to hire you kid, go back home and sell drugs. Contribute to the drag - we don't want you.

The day before his eighteenth birthday he's going to apply for a job. He bought a nice shirt and pants at the thrift store (as nice a thing you can find there anyway) with money earned doing odd jobs for other people. Mainly drug runs, but it's money, isn't it?

It hardly bothers him how he earns it - it used to when he was younger, but not anymore. Now he's seventeen, and he knows that if he has money in his pocket, someone's going to steal it. He has to amass as much as he can and spend it, before he can get mugged.

In a month though, he's going to leave all that behind. He's going to get a job at the government building across town, rent an apartment, and start a new life.

It sounds wonderful…

"Hey, give that back!"

"Shut up bitch! It's _mine_ now!"

He lifts his head to the sounds, spotting two kids across the street wrestling on the ground. Every so often there is a flash of metal in the sun.

Directly across the street there's a sporting goods store, and the though the glass display window is cracked and boarded up in twelve different places, there's enough glass to see his reflection in. Blond hair, dirty. Baggy clothes, also dirty.

The kids keep fighting each other, screaming profanities that would make any decent mother faint dead away, but he does his best to ignore them.

They won't get to leave for another ten to twelve years after all… and he'll be gone in a month.

Somewhere to his right a door creaks on rusty hinges, and he turns just in time to see a flash of long black hair. His foster mother is busy with a kid wrapped around her ankles, but she came for him anyway.

"Naruto, get in here! I need you to watch the house while I'm out!"

A smirk curls his lips, and he almost feels like laughing. She remembered his name.

He sighs then, the smirk fading. One more month, that's it…. One month isn't very long at all, is it? Just thirty days. Four weeks. One month.

"Fucker, give it back!"

He considers actually listening to her, but he doesn't feel like moving. He's perfectly able, after all, of watching the house from out here. All he needs to know is if anyone goes in or out, or if his foster brother pushes anyone out of the second story window again.

No, he's fine where he is.

"Damn it, you little -"

"_Little_? Who the fuck to you think you're talking to?"

"Bitch!"

When she comes out of course, she'll be angry. She'll scream at him with as many profanities as those kids across the street are using, and he'll end up going inside anyway. But he doesn't feel like going right now. When she comes out with her whore-face on (wearing enough makeup for five women) he'll go, but not now.

Across the street his reflection sighs, and leans a little more weight against the wall.

He'll give her five minutes.

"I said give it back!"

"I heard what you said fucker, but I'm not gonna! Let _go_!"

"It's _mine!_"

"Give it!"

One kid has his hands around the other kids throat, and it look like he's really trying to kill him. Naruto heaves another sigh, tilting his head to the sky. Whatever it is they're fighting over must be pretty valuable. But then again, maybe not; he's seen a kid get beaten for bubble gum….

The day before his eighteenth birthday he's going to take the bus. He's going to dress up nice, wash his face, take the bus to the government building, and they had better be open when he gets there. It will be a formal interview of course, so he should probably practice what he's going to say. There will be questions like why he wants to work there, what his work habits are, his policy on religion, stuff like that - that's what his friend Sakura told him, and he knows he can trust her. She works there, under a Tsunade-something.

God… one more month.

He doesn't know the relief he'll feel when the day comes.

He nearly laughs when he glances across the street to see those two kids still going at it. One of them has a bloody nose, and there are little splatters of red on the sidewalk where he's been. His reflection is standing right beside them, and it looks sort of odd, seeing himself in their midst. Disconcerting….

There's also a kid about Naruto's age at the bus stop not far away, a bit more removed from the scene than he is. The shelter is about five meters to his right, five to his reflection's left, with spray paint in such abundance that he can't see the advertisements anymore. The kid looks better off than he does (his jeans are ripped on purpose, he's got an eyebrow piercing and a tattoo on his neck) but he's sitting there like he belongs. His hair looks styled too, sticking up in the back, and he has a couple of metal bangles Naruto knows he should hear clinking.

Maybe he's too far away, but he doesn't.

The boy breaks Naruto's gaze, leaning against the back of the bus shelter. There are a pair of wings painted just behind where he's sitting, and it's funny, but -

"Fucker!"

The boy doesn't even flinch.

"Give it to me dammit!"

Naruto groans, putting his head back a little too hard and nearly cracking his skull on the bricks. If those kids don't kill each other _he's_ going to kill them. Just to _shut them up_!

The boy glances his way, and their eyes meet for just a split-second.

_BANG._

The boy has pulled out a cell phone, and he's dialing a number. Maybe, Naruto thinks, he's calling 911, for this bullet hole that suddenly appeared in his chest. But no… he looks too calm for that. He doesn't even look like he knows the kids across the street are screaming again, though the profanities are lost and its just animal shrieks.

The gun they were fighting over is lying at their feet. Neither boy seems to want it now.

The boy glances up, the cell phone now against the left side of his head, and again their eyes meet. Naruto can feel something wet against his back, and it takes him a moment to realize it's probably blood. The boy doesn't seem to notice.

In fact…. Naruto half wants to punch him, half wants to mouth 'call nine one one' and hope he'll know what he's talking about.

He's smiling.

Naruto turns his head with an effort, realizing halfway that his vision is so far gone he might not be able to see him anyway. But no…. he gets his head around, and, yeah, the world has gone black and spotty, but he can see the bus shelter. He can see the bench were the boy was sitting, the painted wings there were right behind him, but…

No boy.

He's there though; Naruto can still see him in the glass no matter how bad his eyesight is. He's sitting there, calm as can be, messing with his eyebrow piercing like there's not a kid dying seven feet away.

There's the bus shelter. There's the boy, smirking ….

Nothing.

Sirens.

Nothing.


End file.
